Someone expressed concern that the stories were visible to the general public and index-able by search engines.
So, we have switched the Contest submissions area to require you to be logged in to read the stories. You can still respond to them normally.

On another note, now that the contest is finished, the contest area will be moved further down the page in a few days. You might have to scroll to see it when that happens.

I just know this is going to sound sarcastic, but honestly, I don't mean it that way.

But isn't it a bit of a Stable Door precaution? The problem as raised on another forum where we discussed this contest was that the entries were technically being published, so those who didn't win the prizes couldn't then try to sell their stories elsewhere unless they took reprint rates.

I don't know the ins and outs of publication rights, but I'm not sure going members only at this stage makes any difference to that.

For my own part, I'd comprehended the open format of the contest and submitted in the expectation that Avery T. Deacon Harriegh* and the web-bots of the world would be able to have a gander for free. Since this thread appeared, I've been wondering whether there would have been more or less entries if it had been more clear that the whole affair was out in public, or similarly if it had been explicitly occult from the get-go.

...but wondering without asking any of those involved. I have a notion I wouldn't have had a try if it had been under the same lid as Short Storied (Members Only) department, but I don't claim to know my own motivations so well as to be able to form a certain opinion.

In contests as yet unconceived, it's probably a good idea to settle the public/private thing ahead of time and stick it in the rules, just to save the extra work this switching of availability must have been.

I don't think it's purely the money, although it comes in handy for paying the bills, but the fact that many publication markets are very particular about getting FIRST publication rights. Just take a look at the submissions page for Daily Science Fiction, where the editors are so emphatic on this point that they state, three or four times in a row, that they don't take reprints, just to make sure the message gets across. So if all you have to offer is reprint rights, it limits the number of venues you can sub to.

As for whether or not the number of entries was increased or decreased. Well, it made no difference to me personally, but I know of others who may not have entered if they'd realised they were losing first pub rights. I'm not deputised to speak for them though, so I'll leave it there.